VFACTS September: New car sales falter

The Australian new-car market has just ticked over 900,000 deliveries in 2024 – the first time it’s done so by the fourth quarter – but September’s sales tally took a hit compared to the corresponding month last year.

Aussies have taken delivery of 927,246 new vehicles so far this year ending September; 97,020 of which were chalked up last month – a decline of 12.4 per cent compared to September 2023 when there were 110,702 new registrations.

The overall market is still up some 3.1 per cent compared to the first three quarters of last year, but the momentum is continuing to falter – second consecutive month of negative growth – as consumers keep battling sky-high interest rates and other costs of living pressures.

But even so, Australia’s favourite car in September 2024 was the Toyota RAV4 which notched up 5183 sales to make it a hat-trick of months at the top of the standings.

Not only was it the best-seller, the RAV4 also enjoyed the biggest year-on-year increase of any model in the September top 10 – up a mighty 85.2 per cent compared to September 2023.

The Ford Ranger brought home the silver yet again with 4485 deliveries, followed closely by the Toyota HiLux in third (4313).

The rest of the top 10 comprised of the Ford Everest (2902), Isuzu D-MAX (2612), Mitsubishi Outlander (2508), Kia Sportage (2055), Mazda CX-3 (1982), Mazda CX-5 (1799) and Hyundai Tucson (1766), cementing Australia’s undeniable love of SUVs and utes.

Toyota predictably topped the tables from a brand perspective with 18,110 sales across its various model lines and yet it was the only one of the top five to post negative growth – its September total down 13.4 per cent year-on-year.

Ford secured a distant second (8303), fending off Mazda (8201) by just 102 units, while Kia (7650) finished the month in fourth, comfortably clear of Mitsubishi (6130) in fifth.

Hyundai (5633), Isuzu (3929), MG (3841), GWM (3802) and Subaru (3169) rounded out the top 10, all slipping compared to the same month last year save for GWM which enjoyed a 31.2 per cent upswing to record its strongest month on record.

As for the various fuel types, good old petrol and diesel are still the overwhelming favourites – even if sales of the former were down 17.5 year-on-year.

Hybrids meantime have continued their upward trajectory, as have the dearer and far less abundant plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), with increases of 34.4 and 89.9 per cent respectively.

EV sales by contrast have fallen on their face and more than halved last month compared to September 2023, totaling 3561 units without the contributions of Tesla or Polestar, the former of which reportedly saw its sales slashed by almost 50 per cent last month in line with national and global trends.

Best-selling brands in September 2024

Best-selling models in September 2024

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